Coastal Services Center

Data Transport Laboratory (DTL) Technology Selection Process

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Data Transport Laboratory (DTL) Targets

The DTL is primarily intended to support the use of systems that are compliant with data management and communications (DMAC) transport technologies at the local observatory and regional levels. Technologies to be used in the national backbone or national data assembly centers will be a secondary focus.

While the DTL project will develop some software to support the production of selected reference implementations, the DTL is not intended to be a software development facility. Rather, it is intended to demonstrate the function and utility of candidate data-sharing technologies in an objective environment.

Candidate Selection Process

Suggestions will be accepted from the integrated ocean observing system (IOOS) community for candidate technologies to be implemented in the DTL. The primary sources for the identification of candidates are the local observatories, regional associations, the Ocean.US data management and communications team and its expert teams, and deliberate outreach efforts of the DTL staff, such as meetings and workshops.

Candidate technologies, nominated through these mechanisms, will be filtered through a set of criteria to assess their relevance and importance to the stake-holders.

Those criteria are:

1. Significance to Local Observatories - Local observatories have their own missions and goals. Their involvement and contribution to the IOOS data universe must be facilitated in a manner that allows their uninhibited pursuit of their local missions while providing enough convention and standardization to enable efficient and effective data sharing. Technologies must be useful, low cost in terms of hardware, software, and human resources, and must be straightforward in their implementation. The DMAC holds as a guiding principle the idea that the DMAC data sharing mechanism must do no harm to the local data provider. This suggests that DMAC requirements, or those to be suggested to the DMAC for adoption via implementation in the DTL, should be minimally invasive to the local observatory.
2. Significance to Regional Associations (RA) - The roles of the regional associations in the development of local and regional data handling infrastructures is not fully developed. There are two schools of thought. One asserts that the RAs will be directly involved in the creation and operation of data aggregation or assembly centers. A second school asserts that the RAs will coordinate data aggregation behavior by other organizations, but that the RA will not necessarily be involved in operating the information technology (IT) infrastructure of the Center-and may even be prohibited from operating it. Whether an RA operates as a data aggregator or coordinates with another organization that does the aggregation/assembly, there will be substantial challenges in orchestrating access to data at the local level, implementing data models to facilitate efficient data exchange from the local level to the regional level, and operating the necessary IT infrastructure to perform operational data aggregation and service.
3. Relevance to DMAC Guidance - The DMAC is the authoritative body for the promulgation and adoption of IOOS data transport standards and technologies. As the DMAC produces guidance or expresses needs for support, these elements will be closely considered by the DTL for implementation.
4. Relative Maturity of Candidate - The DTL is not intended to be a software development organ. Rather, it is intended to implement, document, demonstrate, and test data-sharing technologies developed by others. Candidates for implementation in the DTL should be sufficiently mature to enable straightforward acquisition of the components, installation, and configuration. The DTL will necessarily create some software to facilitate its own internal operations, such as data harvesting and loading.
5. Appropriate Level of Effort for DTL - The DTL is not a large project and will have approximately three full-time equivalent units (FTE) available in the upcoming year. Consequently, data-sharing technologies considered for implementation in the DTL should be of a size and complexity that is reasonable to pursue within the DTL resource limitations. If large or complex projects are to be implemented, the scheduling of milestones for the project should carefully consider the project resource limitations.
6. Coincidence of other Center Efforts - Periodically, projects outside the DTL at the Center produce deliverables relevant to the DTL mission and purpose. It may be necessary, in order to avoid the loss of such deliverables, to implement them in the DTL, thus preserving the deliverables and contributing them to the community for consideration and possible use.